36 Gal. "Second Life"

[Noahma]

Well, After spending a bit of time learning, and staring at my tank, I have decided to Re-scape the tank.

Here are the specifics as the tank sits now.

36 gal. bowfront tank.
Fluval 205 Canister filter
Some sort of pain in the butt powerhead.

The tank consists plant wise of

Wistera (that resembles the blob at times.)
Two Lotus plants
Madagascar lace
Val. Americanas
Anacharis
Java Moss
Creeping Jenny
Belive it or not, There is a Red Rubin sword. (going to get a better position in the re-scape
Another HUGE sword, that will stay as it sits.
A couple Amazon swords. A small clump of remaining Marsiella Minuetta (will be replaced with Quadrifolia or Hirsuta (tons of it)
Red Ludwiga
Creeping Jenny.

The wisteria has taken over the tank lol. It will be minimized and put in the very rear of the tank, with other plants taking the stage as I get things going.

I purchased a very nice twisty piece of Driftwood from DSDrifter, which should be here by Friday (wahoo) After I submerge it for a few days, the rescape will commence.

My plan.

As you can see from the pic below of the existing tank. There is a HUGE ugly mass of stuff on the right of the tank. It started out as a fake log decoration, that has been consumed by Java Moss, and lived in by shy amano shrimp. This is going to be removed. I am doing that because I feel that my top level fish deserve the full length of the tank to swim. And it is a pain during tank work. The Red Rubin is behind this monstrosity, it is only surviving, and needs more space to grow. I also have a very small piece of driftwood on the left corner of the tank, this too has been taken by java moss, and has become the Cherry Shrimp headquarters. This may stay in its position, with the Anacharis finally being removed from the tank permanently.
There is also a fake rock decoration on the left side that is going to be removed as well.

As far as plants being added. I am going to add a couple of other plants into the mix, to help fill in a bit. And I will remove others that may not be doing as well.
The plants being added

Red Tiger Lotus (I have wanted one forever!)
Bacopa carolina
Brazilian Pennywort
Cardamine (Cardamine lyrata)

I know some of these require more light than I seem to have, but I have had a few plants in the past that did quite well regardless of the "lighting requirements"

The tank will stay CO2 less, although sometime in the future it might get reworked again with co2 and T5HO lighting.

This scape is going to take quite a while, I would have an extremely hard time removing the thousands of Cherry's and my quarantine tank will hold all of these fish for any length of time. So the tank will be rescaped over a period of weeks doing small movements and then large water changes.

Here are the pics of the driftwood (that is on the way) and the tank as it currently stands.




And the Driftwood.

[sapphoqueen]

we will wait to see it!

[Eden Marel]

Oohh , cool driftwood, I love it! I am planning to rescape my tank soon too as soon as I gather new plants. I see a TV reflection, and you put creepy jenny twice. XD Must love the creeping jenny. Can't wait to see the driftwood in action.

[Noahma]

Originally Posted by Eden Marel

Oohh , cool driftwood, I love it! I am planning to rescape my tank soon too as soon as I gather new plants. I see a TV reflection, and you put creepy jenny twice. XD Must love the creeping jenny. Can't wait to see the driftwood in action.

lol yea I asked my wife to turn off the tv for a min. and she got mad lol. And I did the post a couple hours later, and before bed haha. I do love the Creeping Jenny, it is a great hardy plant. In my 5.5 gal. it is growing out of the top of the tank, and up the wall.

I should have the driftwood tomorrow. UPS states that it is on time for delivery. It should not take long to sink, so the re-scape should start either end of week next week, or the beginning of the following week. I am going to go hit up Aqua imports tomorrow and see what they have, It is the delivery day for plants. If they do not have much, then I will place my online order for the stuff sitting in the checkout cart.

[Eden Marel]

Originally Posted by Noahma

lol yea I asked my wife to turn off the tv for a min. and she got mad lol. And I did the post a couple hours later, and before bed haha. I do love the Creeping Jenny, it is a great hardy plant. In my 5.5 gal. it is growing out of the top of the tank, and up the wall.

I should have the driftwood tomorrow. UPS states that it is on time for delivery. It should not take long to sink, so the re-scape should start either end of week next week, or the beginning of the following week. I am going to go hit up Aqua imports tomorrow and see what they have, It is the delivery day for plants. If they do not have much, then I will place my online order for the stuff sitting in the checkout cart.

Growing out of the tank and onto the wall!! Soon your house is gonna have plants growing on the wall, like those vines people grow outside their house and climb their house, except yours will be inside. One of my friends claimed mushrooms were growing on their ceiling lol.

How much did your driftwood cost, what kind of wood that is? I bought me a medium mopani at Petsmart for $4.30... the FoCo and Loveland one didn't really have any nice shape that I envisioned, so I had to settle for the one at Loveland:



Is Aqua Imports that one place with the Amano Shrimp and Nerite Snails, I can't remember. Do they have nice plants, everytime I go to a fish store their plants are dead or dying, or they are 3-4x more expensive (only good if you are buying a few to save on shipping).

[Noahma]

Originally Posted by Eden Marel

Growing out of the tank and onto the wall!! Soon your house is gonna have plants growing on the wall, like those vines people grow outside their house and climb their house, except yours will be inside. One of my friends claimed mushrooms were growing on their ceiling lol.

How much did your driftwood cost, what kind of wood that is? I bought me a medium mopani at Petsmart for $4.30... the FoCo and Loveland one didn't really have any nice shape that I envisioned, so I had to settle for the one at Loveland:



Is Aqua Imports that one place with the Amano Shrimp and Nerite Snails, I can't remember. Do they have nice plants, everytime I go to a fish store their plants are dead or dying, or they are 3-4x more expensive (only good if you are buying a few to save on shipping).

the Driftwood was from DSdrifter in the S&S forum. It is a root wood of some sort that he collects along a local river in KY. Rod is a nice guy, and is easy to work with. When I get a chance, I will post a pic of the creeping jenny growing out of the tank lol. Right now it is all lumped on top of the HOB filter on the tank. Aqua imports is where I get most of my local plants. It is the nicer of the two boulder stores.

[nemosreef]

What kind of light and wattage are you using on this tank?

[Noahma]

It is a 30" coralife t5no fixture

[marriemb]

looks beautiful but cluttered Noahma it needs more space

[Noahma]

Originally Posted by marriemb

looks beautiful but cluttered Noahma it needs more space

Yep, which is why I decided to start a re-scape. Hopefully I can get a good chunk of it done this evening.

[syzygy9]

Looking forward to the updates. Love the driftwood...maybe it will actually be visible in the new set-up.

I just ordered that same fixture (based in part on your input) for my 36G tank....hopefully it shows up before this next weekend so I can start getting mine set-up too.

[Noahma]

Originally Posted by syzygy9

Looking forward to the updates. Love the driftwood...maybe it will actually be visible in the new set-up.

I just ordered that same fixture (based in part on your input) for my 36G tank....hopefully it shows up before this next weekend so I can start getting mine set-up too.

Well, there was one problem with the driftwood, the wrong item number was sent to me, I am not upset about it though, the one he sent was the same price, roughly the same size, and just as cool looking (will post pics later) it will change the overall scape a bit, but just as fun. The original incarnation was set up as my second planted tank, kind of a random see how it grows type thing. This new scape is a purposeful and planned scape, so I plan to see the driftwood lol
I really like this light fixture, it works great for most types of plant I have tried

[Noahma]

Well. Here is the driftwood that was sent. The colors are not as vibrant as it is when fully submerged, and with light on it. There are tones of light brown, dark brown. I also has rocks stuck into the side of it, which must have happened as the root grew. It is AWESOME.

Here is the wood, so far it is on day 4 of being submerged in a 30 gal Tupperware container with the hottest water my tap can produce.

[Eden Marel]

Those rocks are not going to do anything weird to your water? It probably very minute if it does since they look like small rocks and you have a 36g. How long are you going to soak it for?

[Noahma]

Originally Posted by Eden Marel

Those rocks are not going to do anything weird to your water? It probably very minute if it does since they look like small rocks and you have a 36g. How long are you going to soak it for?

I was hoping it would have sank already, but.... its still floating very well lol. This afternoon I am going to drill several small holes in the cut area at the back and then re-soak it for a few days, and if it does not sink then, I will put some stainless steel screws in the bottom and wait. The rocks appear to be safe, and the largest one is around the size of a half dollar, the others are all much smaller. So right now, the only thing I am waiting on is the wood, then it is full steam ahead.